Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This church stands on the west side of High Street in Bedworth. It comprises a 14th and 15th-century tower, with the remainder of the building rebuilt between 1888 and 1890 to designs by G.F. Bodley and T. Garner.

The tower is constructed of local sandstone ashlar, while the remainder of the church is built in red Runcorn sandstone ashlar. All roofs are of plain tile with parapets featuring moulded cornices and coped gable parapets with gablet kneelers to the porches.

The building is laid out as an aisled nave with chancel, south chancel chapel, north vestries, north transept, and north and south porches, all beneath a west tower. The design follows the Perpendicular style, with a three-bay chancel and four-bay nave. A splay and moulded plinth runs throughout.

The chancel features large east buttresses of two offsets and large gablets. Its dominant element is a large five-light east window with Tudor flower decoration, moulded sill course and hood mould, crowned with a cross finial. The north vestries, two storeys on their east side, contain two straight-headed windows of two trefoiled lights and a three-light segmental-pointed window above, with shallow-pitched gable. An embattled octagonal turret sits in the angle between chancel and vestries. The north side has a small chamfered doorway with hood mould and plank door, with a straight-headed window above and to its left, and a larger two-light window with reticulated tracery to the west of a buttress.

The north transept has buttresses of two offsets at its north-west and south-west corners and a four-light window, with gable pinnacle and embattled return parapets. The four-bay north aisle has two buttresses with gablets. The north-west porch features diagonal buttresses, a doorway with continuous chamfered outer order and moulded inner order with half-octagonal responds and hood mould, and three two-light windows. Both porches contain mid-twentieth-century part-glazed doors. Three-light west windows open to both aisles.

The south aisle and chancel chapel form a single range. The chapel contains four-light east and three-light south-east windows, both straight-headed with reticulated tracery. The south-west porch has angle buttresses with gablets and a doorway of two chamfered orders. The aisle has buttresses and two two-light windows. The nave gable features gablet kneelers and a turret with ogee gables, pinnacles and spirelet.

The tower comprises one large stage on a moulded plinth. Diagonal buttresses of four offsets flank a low west doorway of two chamfered orders with hood mould and a 19th-century studded six-panelled door. A three-light west window has restored tracery, with a small straight-headed opening above. Large two-light bell-chamber openings contain a transom and louvres. The upper west section is covered by a square slate clock-face in a moulded sandstone frame, probably dating to the early 19th century. The east side has a similar clock-face dated 1817 in a Gothick surround, below which is a segmental-arched opening. The tower is crowned with an embattled parapet set with small pinnacles.

Interior

The interior is plastered. Arches throughout have two chamfered orders with responds and half-shafts between each bay, set with moulded capitals. The chancel contains north and south arches with small low chamfered arches, and on its north side a large internal mullioned window with king mullion and central transom featuring trefoiled lights and hood mould. Both chancel and nave have arched brace roofs. The chancel arch is of three orders, its outermost segmental-pointed. Five-bay arcades feature continuous hood moulds. The tower arch consists of two chamfered segmental-pointed arches. Doorways to the aisles and chapels are segmental-pointed.

The north chapel, now serving as a vestry, contains a coved timber east gallery with traceried balustrade. A large east opening to the gallery features elaborate timber tracery.

The church retains a traceried reredos, sanctuary panelling, altar rails, stalls, and an octagonal pulpit with octagonal front. The rood screen dates from 1929, and the north vestry screen from 1933. The east window contains stained glass from 1890.

Monuments include entries on the chancel south wall for Elizabeth Howlett (died 1776), John Howlett (died 1820, signed by Seager of Coventry), and other examples featuring simple architectural frames and panels.